Normalized effect of condenser fouling and refrigerant charge on performance of vapor compression air conditioning systems

摘要

Several laboratory experiments have studied the effect of faults on vapor compression cycle air-conditioning systems. There has been a particular focus on refrigerant charge variation, which is believed to be quite common in air conditioners, and a lesser focus on heat exchanger fouling. The majority of the published results evaluate the fault effects on particular system operating parameters in one unit. For example, the effect on capacity and efficiency are typically evaluated. The results differ from one study to the next. The current paper summarizes the effects for all of the results available in the literature for condenser fouling and refrigerant charge variation, and provides normalized relationships. The normalizations are provided for ANSI/AHRI 210/240 standard test conditions and are provided separately for fixed orifice and thermostatic expansion valve equipped systems. The level of variation found in the summary shows that for many applications, it is reasonable to the use normalized relationships to estimate the effect of faults on systems that have not been tested in a laboratory.